By Anthony O’Connor
Sometimes a flick comes along that knocks the wind right out of you. It’s unexpected, weird, wild and totally original. 2003’s Haute Tension (aka High Tension aka Switchblade Romance) is not quite that film, but it remains one of the most exciting horror movies of the early 2000s, and marked the emergence of a fascinating filmmaker in Frenchman Alexandre Aja, who quickly decamped to the US, where he has since built up a resume of extremely diverse but mostly impressive films, including The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mirrors (2008), Piranha 3D (2010), Horns (2013), The 9th Life Of Louis Drax (2016) and Crawl (2019).
Two French female students, Marie (Cécile De France) and Alex (Maïwenn Le Besco), are spending what should be a fun weekend at Alex’s parents’ secluded homestead. Unbeknownst to them, there is a huge, guttural beast of a man (played by Philippe Nahon from Gaspar Noe’s I Stand Alone), sitting in a dirty van nearby. And he’s about to enter the girl’s lives and nothing will be the same.
Okay, you’ve heard the plot before. Bad guy stalks and slashes good girls. The thing about this flick’s nemesis is that he’s hardcore in a way unseen since the seventies. Example? Well, the first time we see him he’s being fellated. Not so rough? He’s getting head from a severed woman’s cranium! Yeah, we’re in that kind of territory. This isn’t a Nightmare On Elm St. sequel where Freddy spouts one-liners or Scream, where self-reflexive dialogue dulls the knife-edge of suspense. This is nasty, gritty shit that comes at you like a crowbar to the skull.
Without a word, without a sound, without so much as a knowing wink to the camera, the bad man butchers the father in a graphic, Dario Argento-esque scene that would almost be comical if it wasn’t so vicious. The grunting behemoth of a killer then goes on to do unspeakable things to the rest of the family (you’ll have to see it, but trust us – it’s not nice).
Then he catches, binds and gags Alex. He throws her into the back of his filthy, muck-stained van and drives away. Marie has managed to hide. In a scene of extreme tension, she gets rid of all evidence that she was ever there. But now her best friend (and implied potential lover) is being driven to a hell worse than imagining. There’s no time to call the police – the trail will be cold. So Marie gets in her car and follows the devil. And so the movie goes on…
What has just been described is hardly a startlingly original first act for a movie, but in Haute Tension, director Alexandre Aja does something that would seem almost impossible: creates a movie that literally becomes more and more nerve-wracking as it goes on. This is the bastard offspring of Hitchcock and Argento and Craven and Carpenter – all in one film.
Literary horror fans will notice similarities in the simple-but-very-effective stylings of authors Richard Laymon and Jack Ketchum. The characters are barely sketched, and for most of the film the killer has neither rhyme nor reason for what he does – he just is. He is a pure embodiment of evil – a “bogeyman” just like Michael Myers was way back in the original Halloween.
Sounds good so far, right? Yes, but unfortunately Haute Tension is one of those movies which is completely undone by an eleventh hour twist so inane you’ll feel like hurling guide dogs at helicopters. Honestly, in the history of genre cinema, Haute Tension may win the dubious award for dumbest end twist. It’s right up there with April Fool’s Day (when all the killings were a joke!) and Happy Birthday To Me! (where the killer wore an identical mask of the protagonist a la Mission Impossible). The thing is, those two pieces of eighties trash were forgivable because, well, they were consistently pretty crap. Haute Tension is so close to being an unforgettable masterpiece of simple terror and then to end like it does is…so very disappointing.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t see it. Armed with the knowledge that the last five minutes are breathtakingly stupid, you could probably get a lot out of the flick. It breaks down like this – did you enjoy the journey of something like Signs or The Village before the crappy ending pulled the rug out from under you? If so, and if you’re ready for gusty horror the likes of which you’ve probably not seen for a while, Haute Tension comes highly recommended.
If, however, you’re a purist and can’t separate a film’s conclusion from the rest of it, you may be disappointed. Haute Tension lives up to its name. It’s a nail-biter from start to (almost) finish. The set-ups are beautiful, the action amazing, the gore savage and the sense of menace palpable throughout. It totally screws itself with the ending but the rest of it is so damn good you might just get over it. In the case of Haute Tension, the real joy (and terror) is in the journey.
